Boulder County sheriff's investigators searched Eldora Mountain Resort again Thursday, following the discovery of a human foot inside a snow boot, and now believe the remains do not belong to an employee of the ski area who has been missing since January.

Yet the second day of searching proved fruitless, with sheriff's officials announcing that no additional remains were discovered.

Investigators said they were suspending further search efforts until the remainder of the snow in the area has sufficiently melted.

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office released this photo of a boot found with a human foot and leg bones inside it at Eldora Mountain Resort on Wednesday. (Courtesy photo)

Sheriff's detectives responded to the ski resort west of Nederland on Wednesday afternoon after an employee called police to report finding a boot containing human remains in a clearing near the base of the mountain.

Officials Thursday said the boot, discovered in the vicinity of the Sundance lift, is a left, size 13, men's Rugged Outback snow-style boot. Inside the boot was a black sock and human remains consisting of a foot and lower leg bones.

Investigators searched an area of about 40,000 square yards Wednesday, but did not find any additional remains before calling off their search that night. They continued their efforts through the day Thursday, covering approximately 180 acres, including eight miles of Nordic trials that were searched by horseback.

However, a friend of Kienzle's from Fort Collins, who asked not to be identified by name, said, "I didn't really pay attention to his feet, but I wear a size 13, and he had significantly smaller feet than me. I remember him really being more an 8 or a 9" shoe size.

DNA possible tool in identity search

A staff member at the Boulder County Coroner's Office said DNA could be a tool that assists in an identification, if the DNA profile of the remains from the boot are entered in the national Combined DNA Index System — CODIS — and then matches a profile already on file there.

"If nothing matches in CODIS, that's more or less a dead end," the coroner's staffer said. "That's certainly an option. But right now, we just don't know what we're going to do with it."

Investigators are continuing to go through missing-person reports and have reached out to other law enforcement agencies across the state and country in an attempt to identify potentially related missing-person cases.

Terrie Kirkpatrick with Front Range Rescue Dogs searches Eldora Mountain Resort with Tia, an English shepherd, one of four dogs involved in the search for human remains at the ski resort on Thursday. (Autumn Parry / Staff Photographer)

Six search-and-rescue and cadaver dogs, as well as five horses and several all- terrain vehicles, were being used in the search as well.

Booton said sections of the terrain in the area that was searched, near the Sundance Lift, were still covered by snow — and won't be able to be thoroughly examined until further melting occurs.

He added that animals native to the area could very well have caused any other human remains to become more broadly distributed.

Trying to stay 'distanced'

Terrie Kirkpatrick, with Front Range Rescue Dogs, accompanied by Tia, an English shepherd, said the dogs utilized Thursday were trained for both "air-scent wilderness" work, meaning they can be assigned to alert to assigned smells, and as cadaver dogs. But on Thursday, she said, they were only looking for cadavers.

Kirkpatrick acknowledged the search was grim duty, but said those participating in it couldn't dwell on potentially emotional aspects of the work.

"We try to compartmentalize it," she said. "It's easier for us if we try to stay distanced from it, so that we're not personally involved. That's so I can just do my job."

Also employed Thursday was an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, contracted by the Boulder Emergency Squad. Its primary task was to videotape the terrain that is currently snow-covered, Booton said, to make a visual record of which areas may then need to be searched at a later time after more snow has melted.

Booton said that search teams were focusing on items they might find as small as a man's wallet.

"If they look for something smaller, hopefully that leads us to the bigger clue," Booton said.

At about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, a helicopter appeared in the cloudless sky high over the resort and slowly circled the area, appearing to be supporting the search efforts in some manner.

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